Up close and personal.

From the moment we come into this world, we have new encounters. From birth to death, we meet people, animals, and experience other interesting points of difference that we talk about. It might be a famous star, a horse, or a statue in the park, but if it’s different, we let people know what happened in our day.

In my last job I had the opportunity to meet celebrities. The closest I got was a “stylist” who had Sandra Bullock as a client. He referred to her as “Sandy” and discussed the devastation she went through when Jesse James pulled out his gun and moved on to the next territory. (That’s a pun by the way.) He didn’t say too much because it was a personal story, but I listened to what snippets he brought to the meeting.

I was also supposed to meet Katy Perry as she was in the process of signing a deal with Coca-Cola as a spokesperson overseas. At the last minute the deal fell through and so did the meeting; I was not planning to be star struck, I was more interested to learn about how she was as a person. Since it was going to be pretty much one-on-one meeting (3 people were invited) I thought it would be fun. Yes, I would have told people about it, but it would have been after the deal had been signed and it was public information. That is something I have learned in business----don’t be the first person to talk.

About a month ago, my oldest daughter who lives in Dallas attended the taping of “X-Factor” the new show to debut on Fox this fall. Because of her ability to finagle about anything, she sat directly behind the judges. I mean directly behind them. She spoke with Simon Cowell, Paula Abdul, and L.A. Reid (a well known producer.) Knowing Amanda, she had no fear in talking to them. How do I know? She is my daughter. Turns out she invited all of them to a Playboy party she had been invited to, along with a friend, and she said, “Dad they almost came with us.” They had another priority (supposedly)---I am sure they are somewhat protective with what they do, but then again I am sure they did give it some consideration.

As you can see, when you hear of someone having an interesting encounter with someone famous or out of the ordinary, you talk about it. I can say with 100% certainty, if I ever get the call from Sports Illustrated, and they offer to let me shoot for just one event (any event) you will be hearing about it. “Trust me” as they say.

The photo above was taken of my 8-year-old daughter at the Brookfield Zoo; obviously, and thankfully, there is a large piece of glass separating a large polar bear from a 60-pound-girl and a photographer who would make a nice meal. That’s one meal I would not be talking about after it happened.

Thanks for stopping by.